IIM Ahmedabad, which will soon completely fifty years of existence, has been the nation's pre-eminent management institution for several decades now.A little over three years after it was set up, Vikram Sarabhai chose a young corporate executive, Ravi Matthai, to head the team of academics he had assembled at IIMA, many of them trained at Harvard Business School. Matthai was all of thirty-eighty years old when he was appointed the Institute's first full-time director. He was not an academic by training. And yet, Matthai turned out to be absolutely the right choice. Building on the foundation laid by Sarabhai, Matthai went on to create a vibrant institution using principles that were highly evolved for his time and quite unique in the world of education.This book tells the story of how IIMA was conceived, its distinctive governance structure, its unique culture - and how a highly gifted manager created the conditions for its enduring success. It gives the reader a peep into the inner workings of one of India's most admired academic institutions. It shows how IIMA's success was no accident but the result of the vision and dedicated effort of a remarkable leader, a pioneer in management education in India.